Monday, 16 March 2009

Nielsen released figures last week showing that the fastest growing Facebook demographic segments are in the older audiences with the 35-49 year old and 50-64 year old user base growing significantly faster than younger audiences (Dec 08 vs Dec 07.)

However, whilst this makes interesting headlines / is a good indication of how social networking is being universally adopted, in absolute terms the volume of younger Facebook users still far outweighs (even the combined) number of older users.

I have split down usage by age group for the top 10 countries with highest Facebook penetration:

Country

15-24

25-34

35-44

45-54

55-65

USA

23,927,320

14,953,960

8,912,960

3,757,280

2,051,540

UK

7,634,100

5,390,340

2,617,920

1,007,760

463,100

Canada

5,032,000

3,248,440

1,672,820

848,120

451,200

Turkey

5,241,760

2,761,980

712,780

179,180

78,340

France

4,928,980

2,315,280

592,340

218,260

109,440

Italy

3,353,740

2,898,420

1,327,340

462,120

159,480

Australia

2,198,420

1,756,680

663,400

270,320

144,760

Colombia

2,487,080

1,225,980

327,940

109,580

49,300

Chile

2,004,720

1,234,640

523,200

215,400

76,500

Spain

1,141,980

1,869,420

552,780

136,940

60,140

Facebook - usage by age group in top 10 Facebook countries(actual numbers of active users)

The figures above are taken from the Facebook advertising interface and show that 46.6% of the Facebook audience of the top 10 countries by usage is in the 15-24 year old age range, followed by a further 30.3% in the 25-34 year old age range.

The older Facebook demographics may be growing faster than the younger demographics, but 75% of Facebook users in the largest countries by Facebook usage are still under 35.

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